Imagine with me for a minute: You're a 14-year-old girl, your parents are suddenly gone, and you're left to care for your younger siblings with zero resources. Your younger sisters are ages 9, 7, twins 4, 3, and a baby. Are you feeling panicked yet? These are the shoes that big-sister Katherin was filling for over a month, alone.

They are not alone now. These 7 girls arrived here at GiveHope2Kids one week ago. They came with only the clothes on their backs. All were malnourished and two had bronchitis. They were listless and obviously insecure.

It's just one week later, but already you can see a change in these girls. They're more alert, more active, and they smile. It's amazing how one week of good care can make such a difference.

But one week of care isn't our goal. We're in this for the long-haul. If we can reunite a child with family, that is obviously our ideal, but for most of our kids that's just not possible. For as long as a child is here, we are raising them in the best family-environment that we can. We will educate them and prepare them to support themselves as independent adults, and not let them go until they're ready to fly. We want to be their forever-family.

Seven sisters are now living with Grandma Gladys. We will be their home and family for as long as they need it.

Will you help us do this? We were already needing sponsors and adding in 7 more kids makes our need for sponsors that much more urgent! Be a blessing to these kids. Help us a make a difference in their lives!

This year has been a year of adding finishing touches to our myriad of building projects from the past 8 years. Too often when we urgently need to get to the next project, we've rushed past the finishing touches our spaces need. So this year we've painted walls that have never seen a coat of paint before, trimmed windows, and added on a much needed storage shed. We've finished off our community areas better too, which makes things run smoother for our Friday Night Youth Group. Currently we're finishing a road for better access to our agricultural projects and we're expanding and improving housing for our pigs....Our top new investment though is in people: We recently welcomed in a new house-parent to our team, Grandma Gladys, who is caring for three new siblings, Katia, Dilmer, and Brianna. Giving a stable home to these kids is why we push through all the other projects. This is the heart of GiveHope2Kids.

As I share photos from this month's fun parties, let me tell you part of our story:​

A decade ago, when we (Jason & Sarah Furrow) moved to Honduras, we spent time visiting Children’s Homes and learning from their leaders. Everybody told us to start slow and to create our culture. Once we had a good culture going, they said, new kids would shape themselves into our mold, instead of causing chaos. From our vantage point then, this seemed like such an undefined, daunting task. We prayed that God would give us wisdom and guidance.

Fast forward to now: When we get the whole group of kids together, the atmosphere is incredible. Every single time I end up reflecting on how much these kids have grown and changed through the years.

They came through our gates as orphans: insecure, unloved, unhealthy, and either too quiet or too noisy. Now they know they are part of a family – and it shows. Most of our kids have been with us for 4½ years!

School is in session here at GiveHope2Kids. For the 2016 year, our 14 elementary students will attend homeschool every day here on the property. They start at 7:00am every morning by singing the Honduran anthem and then off to classes they go! In the mornings they're studying their main subjects and then after lunch, they have electives.

The kids' favorite new class is called "Oficios," which is kind of like shop class. It's really the kick-off of our Trade School dreams. Twice a week our kids get to work on a new skill, which we hope will help them to develop into independent adults. The kids have responded so well and are constantly asking: “Clase de oficios hoy?” That means: “Trade School class today?” (If you would like to come and teach in our Trade School, please do! You can learn more about coming down for a short-term trip here.)

We really feel that our teachers are going to do such a great job this year. Both of our house-moms are helping to teach, along with two of our university scholarship students, Katy and Doris, and our volunteers David, Amy, and Josiah. Our teachers are so excited to have a brand new curriculum to teach from. (Thank you to those who donated to make this happen!) Ms. Sharon, our long term mentor from our IER days, has been helping us prepare for what will be our best year yet. We are so excited to see how our kids continue to learn and grow.

Things are changing once again here at GiveHope2Kids. We've said goodbye to two more great volunteers, rainy season is finally here, school is out for the year, and our kids just keep getting bigger!

Everyone is so excited to have a little more freedom in their day, without school uniforms and strict schedules. We just celebrated kindergarten graduation with our group of younger kids. We are so proud of our little ones!

The older kids are enjoying more responsibility around the property. They've been working on picking fruit, feeding the pigs, and other small agriculture projects.

However, they're most excited for our new egg-laying hens. They'll be in charge of collecting eggs for the property. (Please check out our Gift Catalogand consider donating towards these chickens.)

The younger kids around the property are spending more and more time outside swimming, playing soccer, or riding bikes.